We had one of the wines. It was, in the opinion of the staff, perhaps the worst wine you could offer for a wedding. Not very versatile with foods, a very definite taste and in no way a crowd pleaser. We don't even carry the second wine. Not one we want on our shelves and definitely not one you want on your wedding tables. Sad. Just sad.

The idea that wines for your wedding are a place where you can save a few $$ is so yesterday. And you really need to question a venue that tells you otherwise. We can help you select quality for the price. We don't PUSH cases of wines bought on discount. And there is no one size that fits all. Your wine depends on your menu, your story, YOU!

So 2 guidelines here. First, the wines you choose are part of the memories. You need to be right. Consult with us @MetroWines and make GOOD memories! And, second, a venue that won't let you taste the wines that you are buying doesn't GET IT and you have to wonder what else they DON'T GET!

Sorry about the length of this post, but we are very disturbed. Your wedding is important, very important. And we take it that way.

Follow us on our FB Wedding Page HERE.

Andrew (born February 1, 1972) came of age in the wine business. As a teenager, Andrew traveled with his family on lengthy expeditions in France’s Rhône Valley wine region. He acted as translator as his father interviewed some of France’s notable winemakers. Together they planted their vineyard on steep hillside slopes.^[2]

Andrew earned a bachelor of science degree in enology and viticulture from the University of California, Davis, and studied the art of crafting Syrah with an extended internship in Australia. He made his first wine in Australia at the age of 19 and his eponymous winery's first vintage was 1993. When the vineyard was sold in 2006, Andrew obtained leases for blocks of vineyards throughout California’s Central Coast for wine production. He established a new Los Olivos winery in a former brewery on property owned by fellow vintners, the Firestone family.

Regarded as a ‘maverick’ in the wine business, Andrew Murray Vineyards took the controversial step of switching to screw-tops to enclose all its wines starting with the 2006 vintage. Among other things, Murray cited considerable industry cork failure rates as one of the chief reasons for his decision.

“This set of wines from Andrew Murray is remarkable for its breadth of quality and sheer value.”8/2011, Issue #196: Antonio Galloni for The Wine Advocate

ROBERT PARKER’S THE WINE ADVOCATE

“Andrew Murray Vineyards is one of the shining stars in the Santa Barbara firmament. Extremely low yields…and a dedication to hillside vineyards, ripe fruit, and non-interventionalistic wine-making have combined to propel this estate to the top echelon of the Rhone Ranger hierarchy. Production is small,…but these wines are well-worth seeking out.” (8-27-99 and 2-28-02: Robert Parker for The Wine Advocate)

“At a time when many California wines seem to be priced proportionally to their producers’ egos, Andrew Murray’s offerings are a breath of fresh air given their exceptionally high quality and realistic prices – readers take note.” (8-27-99: Robert Parker for The Wine Advocate)

“…an emerging star in Santa Barbara.” (12/98: Robert Parker, Jr. for The Wine Advocate)

Contact for MetroWines: Gina Trippi

     About Alexandria Nicole Sustainable Vineyard Management integrates three main goals:  environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity.  Sustainability rests on the principle that we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.  It is our belief that wines are made in the vineyard and not in the winery. That’s why at Alexandria Nicole Cellars we believe that taking the best care of our vineyard and the surrounding environment is essential to making the best wines possible, not just today but for the foreseeable future.

     The same assets that make Washington a great place to make wine – low rainfall, ideal weather, phylloxera-free growing, few vineyard pests, and great soil – give us an advantage in our ability to implement sustainable vineyard practices.  With that being said, the philosophy behind farming sustainably at Destiny Ridge Vineyard is primarily concerned with these focus points: water conservation, composting and the planting of beneficial cover crops to reduce soil erosion, pest management and the use of environmentally friendly natural pest control agents, vine balance and power.

Trione Family Vineyards and Winery

Three generations, four decades, five ranches — our family is deeply rooted in the Sonoma County wine industry. Dedicated farmers for forty years, brothers Mark and Vic Trione own and cultivate close to 700 vineyard acres in three prime Sonoma County appellations: Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley and Sonoma Coast.

During 2005 a new chapter took root: Trione Vineyards and Winery. Our family built a winery on our Home Ranch in Alexander Valley and appointed Scot Covington winemaker. Scot made Trione 2006 and 2007 vintages in a custom crush facility; the winery construction completed in time to receive the 2008 harvest.

Living a winemaker’s dream, Scot selects just three percent of the Trione estate grapes and crafts small lots of wine in his customized “studio”. Scot’s goal: make wines that express the highest level of quality across all varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah and Zinfandel.

Our winery operations are a family affair. Mark Trione is President, Vic is Vice President, Mark’s daughter Denise oversees sales and marketing, and her husband, Kris Hicks, is Vineyard Operations Manager. We are proud of our family history (link to Timeline) and passionate about Sonoma County’s hospitality, food and wine.

Trione winery is located next to a 1908 landmark stone building at the Home Ranch in Alexander Valley. Respecting history and tradition, our family restored the Old Stone Building, preserving the history and authentic character. Now an event center, it is available for private parties.

Winemaker

In 2005, when the Trione family decided to build their legacy winery on their Home Ranch in Alexander Valley, they searched for a winemaker with design, construction and wine production experience – a tall order that Scot Covington filled. The family appointed him winemaker in 2005. “The Triones basically gave me a blank piece of paper and said ‘Design your winery’.” Scot envisioned a straightforward facility, customized to accommodate small lots and hands-on winemaking.

Scot brought years of relevant experience to the project. After graduating from California State University, Fresno in 1990 with a B. S. degree in Agricultural Science, Enology, he enhanced his knowledge working on three continents — in North America here in Sonoma County, South Africa and Australia. Scot’s mentors are legendary; his winemaking is influenced by years of training under such icons as Bill Bonnetti and Merry Edwards.

Living a winemaker’s dream, Scot has his choice of the finest grapes grown on the Trione family’s vineyards in the Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley and Sonoma Coast AVAs. He selects the top three percent of grapes from more than 650 acres of vineyards. Scot’s goal: make wines that express the highest level of quality across all varieties produced from estate grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Syrah and Zinfandel.

About Rollin Soles: For nearly fifteen years, the Soles’ property remained a mostly wild landscape used for a variety of farming endeavors. Rollin was making wine at Argyle, his previous venture, and Corby was busy serving in a number of executive positions in the Oregon wine industry. But as the years wore on, the property’s southwestern exposure and diverse soils begged for the Soles to realize their dream: a vineyard of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sloping toward the creek below, the Chehalem Valley beyond, and Oregon’s Coast Range in the distance.

In 2001, Rollin and Corby planted Wits’ End Vineyard and began bringing the idea of ROCO to fruition. Two years later, they produced their first vintage of Private Stash Pinot Noir—showcasing the very best of Rollin’s small-lot winemaking skills in a bottle that was eventually served in the White House. Building on their success, in 2009, the Soles built ROCO its own winery and added a tasting room in 2012. In 2013, Rollin expanded Wits’ End Vineyard and transitioned to full-time focus on ROCO to keep pace with its growing prestige and demand.

Today, Wits’ End Vineyard remains the heart and soul of ROCO wines. ROCO Private Stash and Wits’ End Vineyard Pinot Noirs derive exclusively from these vines—and serve as Rollin and Corby’s testament to the beauty of place, their devotion to family and friends, and their commitment to Oregon winemaking at its finest.

About "Wine in the Garden" The NC Arboretum says: Sample, sip and enjoy the beautiful sights of The North Carolina Arboretum at itsWine in the Garden wine tasting and music series. Held every third Thursday of the summer from 6 – 8 p.m., the Arboretum invites visitors and members to come and enjoy a selection of sustainable wines carefully picked by the trained professional staff of Metro Wines in Asheville.

Celebrate the summer season with an evening in the Arboretum’s nationally known gardens while discovering new wines and listening to live music from some of Western North Carolina’s most talented artists. Each ticket includes a chance to sample four boutique wines hailing from some of the best wine regions in the world along with three hors d’oeuvre food pairings. 

Sovereign Remedies was opened in October of 2014, by Charlie Hodge and his partner Sunil Patel bringing together years of work in the hospitality industry with years of farming the land.   Sovereign Remedies is housed in the New Medical Building on North Market St.  A seven story building, it was once was office space for Asheville’s doctors and dentists, a drug store and barber shop, it now houses a wide variety of law, engineering, and environmental protection agencies, as well as our dear friends at Herbiary.

Somewhere between warm and regal the space is filled with visual treasures of vintage service-ware, rich black and gold curtains, and locally built furniture and fixtures by Iron Maiden Studios.  The 14-foot high windows dominating two of walls, allow for plants to thrive by filling the room with natural light during the day.  At night soft lights and candles create an inviting glow for guests and passersby.  Since opening in the main room we have expanded with a dinning area in our mezzanine and worked with the city to utilize former street parking for an outdoor patio.

The term Sovereign Remedies was discovered while reading about the great history of the Appalachian Mountains. As the area did not allow for easy access many families found and created their own medicine; this proprietary knowledge was know as each family’s Sovereign Remedy.  This concept fuses perfectly with our ethos in that the cherished bottles those early settlers filled with local medicinal herbs to care for themselves and their families reflects the way we bring together the local bounty of the Appalachian region to care for our guests and visitors, our own Sovereign Remedy.

After establishing ourselves as a place to enjoy a superior mixed drink, crafted with the best ingredients, as well as a place that served bar food with the highest commitment to local, organic and humanly raised meats we took a big step towards expanding our culinary offerings.  In the fall of 2016 we met Chef Graham House, an Asheville native, who joined our team, bringing with him the skills and passion to elevate thoughtful bar food to the exceptional culinary program we have today.  Working together Graham and Sunil bring great excellent food from urban-sprouted seed to your table.

Lisa Gilbee has lived in Manduria for 12 years. She is Australian, married to an Italian. They have two young kids. She travels around the world making wine for other people, and also makes wine for a large Puglian winery. But Manduria is home, close to the seas, where they can make wine the way she wants.

Their logo is a picture of an owl statue made from local sandstone. They chose it because the owl observes, watches. It’s how Gilbee wants to farm. “We started by developing natural grasses in the vineyard, then we took out all the pesticides, and eventually got to just using copper and sulfur. Now we have moved to biodynamics.” Their methodology is slow, deliberate progress toward a lofty goal.

Traditionally in Manduria, wines were made really manually: foot stomping of grapes before fermentation, back-breaking pruning of low-trained bush vines, virtually no mechanization in most fields even until World War II. Poor sharecroppers farmed small parcels and could not afford the machinery, the feudal system funneled too much of their harvest into the pockets of local landed aristocracy.  Then, after World War II these old techniques of by-hand wine making virtually disappeared.  In the 20th century production shifted almost entirely to the Cantina Sociale: wine made with BIG equipment. Bulk wine shipped to pump up the alcohol by volume of thin northern Italian reds, and then headed to supermarket chains at bottom shelf prices. Today 90% of the area’s production goes to the Cantina Sociale.

“I’d rather we focus on being a small producer turning our own vineyard into wine,” Gilbee said.

Morella has non-nursery, antique clones in its 10 ha of bush vines. There’s lots of genetic diversity in Gilbee’s monopole because the parcel was planted over time by a variety of farmers. Bush vines like Lisa’s may yield 2 – 2 ½ tons per hectare, trellised conventional vines can produce three times that amount. So slowly the old bush vines are abandoned or removed and replaced with modern clones, in fields designed to work by machine. The fields become easier to work, bulk volume increases and maybe income increases, but the connection to a traditional type of Puglian viticulture disappears.

Lisa clearly likes it here. While she laments the lack of investment in truly studying and understanding Primitivo in the way, say, Barbera is analyzed in the north, she wants to stay, to protect these old vines.  They have an indomitable natural resource in Puglia. The region still makes more wine than all of Australia, and many fields of incredible century-old bush vines (and centuries old olive trees) still stand as mute guardians of the region’s real wealth and value.

The wines:

Morella’s wines are bottled without pumping and without filtration. They use a cement egg for some of the wines. The vessel keeps the lees constantly in movement, and is a hallmark gadget among biodynamic enthusiasts.

Mezzanotte rosso is a  mainly Primitivo blend. Small bits of Negroamaro, Malbec, Cabernet and Petite Verdot are co-fermented with the Primitivo. The wine has nice bones to it and merited several exclamatory emoticons in the margins of my tasting book. Malbec has been grown in Puglia for 100 years according to Gilbee. It was replanted post-Phylloxera because of interest from the Bordeaux wine market.

The estate’s Primitivo/Negroamaro blend was my personal favorite red on the day of my visit. These are the two main grapes of the Salento. Primitivo ripens at the end of August, while Negroamaro does not ripen until the end of September or early October. This wine is grown in terre rosse clay-rich soils, and came after a drought year.

Without a doubt we’ll one day bring Morella’s 80-year-old vine Primitivo to the States. It was lovely, with a shade more blue fruit in comparison to the Primitivo/Negroamaro blend. Full and round. Ditto for the Primitivo La Signora from a different clone that Gilbee also makes. I found the latter wine more aromatically interesting, with a hint of sweet raisiny fruit above all the brawny ripeness.

Of course all these wines taste amazing at lunch in the family’s home, sharing pasta and sauce made with spicy local peppers with Lisa’s husband and her kids, Matilda and Anton. The school-age duo eye me with suspicion, but I think they warmed up a little to the strange American dressed in too-warm clothes by the end of my stay. It was raining, and leaving the happy family to trek north was unappealing. Now that we see the Morella wines also taste great in the dining rooms of our North Carolina homes, I can begin to plan a repeat visit. Primitivo is so essentially Italian-American, great with the way we eat, our bold spectrum of sweet-spicy-hot-meaty flavors.

Morella “Mezzanotte” Primitivo Tarantino IGT  Biodynamic small farm Primitivo crafted by Lisa Gilbee. This is a blend of bush vine Primitivo with an average age of 40 years. It is located in Manduria about 3km from the Ionian sea. The soils are red sandy clay over limestone. The Primitivo is destemmed directly in small open fermenters. The fements are hand plunged and wine is pressed with the basket press and matured in old oak barrels. The wine is racked 2 or 3 times before bottling without filtration. Mezzanotte has a distinct ripe berry fruit nose with hints of blackberry and cherry and with wild herbs. The mouth is initially ripe fruit followed by a balanced fresh tannin finish.

Organic: Certified Biodynamic
Soil type: Red sandy clay over limestone
Elevation: 5 kl from the Ionian sea
Grapes: Blend of new plantings (2005) and 40 year old bush vine Primitivo
Method of fermentation: Destemmed directly into small open fermenters. Hand plunged in a basket press and matured in old oak barrels. Racked two to three times before bottled without filtering.

Morella “Mezzogiorno” Bianco Salento IGP 100% Fiano. 10-year-old vines, from cuttings brought to Puglia from Campania. Planted in Manduria, in red sandy clay over limestone soil, with a unusually large amount of quartz. Hand-picked into small baskets, then pressed whole-cluster in a vertical basket press. Fermented mostly in large oak barrels. Seven months of lees-stirring prior to a light filtration and bottling.

Organic:Certified Biodynamic
Soil type: Red sandy clay over limestone with lots of quartz particles
Elevation:
Grapes: Fiano
Method of fermentation: Handpicked and chilled overnight. Bunches pressed whole in basket press. Half fermented in large oak barrels and half in stainless steel. Stirred on the lees for seven months and lightly filtered before bottling.

Morella Negroamaro Salento IGT
This wine is a blend of 85% Primitivo and 15% Negroamaro, made from 40-year-old vines. Hand harvested in to small baskets and fermented at 28 degrees Celsius. Aged in Allier oak barrels for 12 months, and then an additional 8 months in bottle before release.